Fiercely Real?:Tyra Banks and the making of new media celebrity

This paper will examine former supermodel Tyra Banks as a contemporary “celebrity entrepreneur,” focusing on Banks’ recent shift from television persona to multimedia icon within a neoliberal popular culture. I argue that our contemporary new media environment, marked by convergent media texts, self-branding, and interactivity, provides an ideal space for Banks to produce and globally circulate her postfeminist star text. Through her websites, Facebook, and Twitter confessionals, Banks is able to successfully navigate the contradictory discourses that insist female celebrities be both “authentic” selves while maintaining a disciplined, hegemonic femininity that becomes legitimized and naturalized. I conclude that while Banks’ mobilization of a hypervisibility and sense of individual agency generates an authenticity that may resonate with her fans, she remains contained by the neoliberal and postfeminist discourses that allow her to have such a prominent Internet presence. Consequently, this paper serves to raise unexplored questions about the relationship between celebrity culture, postfeminist and neoliberal subjectivities, and new media

THE REALISM OF ALGORITHMIC HUMAN FIGURES A Study of Selected Examples 1964 to 2001

It is more than forty years since the first wireframe images of the Boeing Man revealed a stylized hu-man pilot in a simulated pilot's cabin. Since then, it has almost become standard to include scenes in Hollywood movies which incorporate virtual human actors. A trait particularly recognizable in the games industry world-wide is the eagerness to render athletic muscular young men, and young women with hour-glass body-shapes, to traverse dangerous cyberworlds as invincible heroic figures. Tremendous efforts in algorithmic modeling, animation and rendering are spent to produce a realistic and believable appearance of these algorithmic humans. This thesis develops two main strands of research by the interpreting a selection of examples. Firstly, in the computer graphics context, over the forty years, it documents the development of the creation of the naturalistic appearance of images (usually called photorealism ). In particular, it de-scribes and reviews the impact of key algorithms in the course of the journey of the algorithmic human figures towards realism . Secondly, taking a historical perspective, this work provides an analysis of computer graphics in relation to the concept of realism. A comparison of realistic images of human figures throughout history with their algorithmically-generated counterparts allows us to see that computer graphics has both learned from previous and contemporary art movements such as photorealism but also taken out-of-context elements, symbols and properties from these art movements with a questionable naivety. Therefore, this work also offers a critique of the justification of the use of their typical conceptualization in computer graphics. Although the astounding technical achievements in the field of algorithmically-generated human figures are paralleled by an equally astounding disregard for the history of visual culture, from the beginning 1964 till the breakthrough 2001, in the period of the digital information processing machine, a new approach has emerged to meet the apparently incessant desire of humans to create artificial counterparts of themselves. Conversely, the theories of traditional realism have to be extended to include new problems that those active algorithmic human figures present

Fashion Blogs : Constructing an Identity through Body and Politics

Fashion blogs are invention of the new millennia. Starting with something as simple as commenting on the outfit or a fashion event using this online medium, modern bloggers transformed it now into a successful business venture and a massive network for sharing ideas, tips and personal struggles with their followers. Thus, nowadays, a successful fashion blogger can be anything from a minor celebrity in the blogosphere, to a major international influencer in the fashion industry. Being personally fascinated by the way modern fashion bloggers run their blogs and manage to create a personal brand, I have decided to focus my research on creation of an online identity fashion bloggers go through whilst managing their personal blogs. Intentionally, or unintentionally personal fashion bloggers develop a certain type of writing and content creation that allows them to connect to many people. Fashion bloggers try to produce an idea that will guarantee them professional success. However, their personal background partially already set them up to be more connected to a certain group of people rather than the other. It is visible in their looks, ethnicity, lifestyle, personal interests and in opinions what type of people would be the majority of their followers. As a results, the network of followers that will be build by the blogger will determine what type of content she will be producing to attract even more readers. This is what will be discussed in this thesis: how fashion bloggers behave and what they primarily focus on in their blogs to keep up the online persona they are constructing

Documenting Femininity: Body-Positivity and Female Empowerment on Instagram

Drawing on participatory research, this study examines the body positive community on Instagram in order to understand how social media platforms enable women to self-present outside of traditional gender norms and challenge dominant ideals of feminine beauty, including the demands to produce smooth skin, to adhere to body size norms, and contain bodily fluids. Although women are experiencing embodiment and agency online, analysis revealed that body positive members are simultaneously repeating dominant codes and reinforcing views of non-normative bodies. This was noticeable when analyzing the responses of the female viewers interviewed for the study who reported visceral feelings of disgust towards the non-normative bodies on display

Taking Purikura: Vernacular Photography and Contested Female Visibility in Japan

This thesis is an exploration of purikura, a type of Japanese photo booth that has been prevalent since the 1990s - these machines, which utilize a broad variety of technologies to allow users to draw on, manipulate or beautify their appearance, serve as a popular form of vernacular photography among young women in Japan. It has been theorized that purikura machines serve as a means of public display of relationship networks, as a form of social capital, and as a tool for the crafting of new friendships. Through the use of these machines as a participant observer, as well as an engagement with the social media, magazines, films, music and manga (comics) favored by interlocutors, this thesis expands on the mediascape purikura persists within to better contextualize this practice. Through participant observation, this thesis expands on the kata, or practiced coordination required in purikura production, demanding an attention to poses, symmetry and group camaraderie. These photographs, which are often utilized for the commemoration of fashion and leisure activities, also serve as a form of conspicuous consumption - this is further enhanced through the beauty practices that these machines work in tandem with, creating an exaggerated gender performance of emphatic femininity in retaliation against larger social expectations of marriage and motherhood for young women in Japan. As a form of digitally enhanced photography that is circulated broadly across social media, this thesis also explores the potential for the proliferation of purikura photographs to be understood as a technologically-mediated cyborg selfhood with a global audience. Through purikura, many young women in Japan are using self-directed photography to describe meaningful life events, peer relationships, and emotions - purikura users challenge normative classification, choosing instead to align themselves within their own subcultures in ways that are unreadable to those who do not participate, where beauty practices have been utilized for in-group classification, further questioning the boundaries of normative Japanese femininity

The body as a brand in social media : analyzing digital fitness influencers as product endorsers

New social actors have emerged with the social media. Among them, we highlighted the digital influencers, people who have millions of online followers, and induce them in favor or against products and brands to be consumed. Therefore, we aimed to analyze this endorsement process carried out by digital influencers in their online profiles, having as research field the fitness market that encourages people to evaluate and work tirelessly in their bodies. We used the Semiotic Image Analysis to investigate the postings of three Brazilian digital fitness influencers and identified four categories that configure the post format: body exposure, body extension, interaction between influencer and brand/product, and interaction between influencer and followers. By means of these categories, we identified that these influencers act as brand avatars, creating an intense link with these products, exposing their bodies in advertisements and extending the meanings of their good shape to endorsed goods and services.Han surgido nuevos actores sociales con Internet. Entre ellos, destacamos a los influencers digitales, personas que tienen millones de seguidores online, y los influyen a favor o en contra de productos y marcas para ser consumidos. Nos propusimos analizar este proceso de aval que realizan los influencers digitales en sus perfiles online, teniendo como campo de investigación el mercado del fitness que incita a las personas a evaluar y trabajar incansablemente en su cuerpo. Utilizamos el Análisis de imagen semiótica para investigar las publicaciones de tres influencers brasileños e identificamos cuatro categorías que configuran el formato de la publicación: exposición corporal, extensión corporal, interacción entre influencer y marca/producto, e interacción entre influencer y seguidores. Mediante estas categorías, identificamos que estos influencers actúan como avatares de marca, creando un vínculo intenso con productos, exponiendo sus cuerpos en anuncios y extendiendo los significados de su buena forma a bienes y servicios avalados

Feminine Beauty Norms And The Media: A Content Analysis Of A Popular Tween Magazine

The term “tween” is rather new and has become widely used in mainstream culture. In terms of how this term is constructed, today’s tween is overwhelmingly female rather than male. Girls are expected to look and act a certain way because of societal beauty norms, which they can learn about via mainstream media, parents, teachers, peers, and other sources of socialization. So far, little research has focused on magazines whose target audience is the younger teen and tween; that is, girls who are roughly 8 to 14 years of age. This research consisted of a content analysis of advertisements found in Girls’ Life, a popular magazine for tween girls. Results indicate that tween girls are exposed to feminine beauty norms and the culture of appearance via the media. Common themes identified in advertisements included an emphasis on appearance, feminine hygiene, and actions and behaviors

We are all living in the world that is Brandy Alexander : hyperreality, beauty and monstrosity in Invisible Monsters

Beauty and monstrosity are usually thought of as opposite to each other, but in recent years, these concepts have been put side by side, with beautiful monsters ever more present in our media, from vampires to serial killers. In Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters, we see the articulation of these concepts, as the characters move in the spectrum of beautiful and monstrous. The main characters in the novel are Shannon (the narrator), a former model turned monstrous by shooting her own face off; and Shane, a man turned into a woman, Brandy, not because he wants to, but precisely because he does not. These characters’ bodies transit through gender conventions, making them marginalized in a society that values appearance so much. Considering Cohen’s theses (1996), we see these characters becoming monsters, as they represent what society fears, people who do not conform to their expected roles and also transit between categories, highlighting the category crisis in sexuality. They also make mirroring movements towards and away from beauty, again, in ways that oppose the expected when considering their birth gender (WOLF, 2002). As one of the results of these movements, Brandy becomes so beautiful, that she becomes sublime, as Burke (2009) defines it, her beauty so close to the unattainable beauty standards, that she becomes hyperreal, a simulacrum of beauty, per Baudrillard’s (1994) definitions. She becomes this godly figure in Shannon’s world, reigning supreme over her life. By looking at these concepts and how they present in the novel, I discuss how both characters articulate their monstrosity in physical and moral ways, looking at their beauty and monstrosity as both opposing and aligned through the novel.Beleza e monstruosidade normalmente são vistas como opostas uma à outra, mas nos últimos anos, esses conceitos têm sido colocados lado-a-lado, com monstros bonitos cada vez mais presentes nas mídias, de vampiros a assassinos em série. Em Invisible Monsters, de Chuck Palahniuk, nós vemos as articulações desses conceitos, conforme os personagens se movem no espectro de beleza e de monstruosidade. Os personagens principais da história são a Shannon (a narradora), uma ex-modelo que se torna monstruosa ao atirar na própria cara; e o Shane, um homem transformado em uma mulher, a Brandy, não porque ele queria ser mulher, mas precisamente porque ele não queria. Os corpos desses personagens transitam entre convenções de gênero, tornando-os marginalizados em uma sociedade que tanto valoriza aparências. Considerando as teses do Cohen (1996), percebemos que esses personagens se tornam monstruosos ao representar os medos de nossa sociedade, sendo pessoas que não se conformam às funções esperadas e que transitam entre categorias, salientado a crise de categorias na sexualidade. Eles também fazem movimentos opostos na direção da beleza, de formas que se opõem ao esperado quando consideramos o gênero em que eles nasceram (WOLF, 2002). Como um dos resultados desses movimentos, Brandy se torna tão bonita, que ela se torna sublime, conforme a definição utilizada por Burke (2009), sendo a sua beleza tão próxima dos padrões de beleza inatingíveis, que ela se torna hiper-real, um simulacro de beleza, conforme as definições de Baudrillard (1994). Ela se torna como uma deusa no mundo da Shannon, reinando suprema sobre ela. Considerando esses conceitos e como eles figuram no romance, eu discuto como ambas as personagens articulam suas monstruosidades de formas físicas e morais, olhando para suas belezas e monstruosidades tanto como opostas quanto como alinhadas durante a história

Character customization: Animated hair and clothing

Treball final de Grau en Disseny i Desenvolupament de Videojocs. Codi: VJ1241. Curs acadèmic: 2018/2019This project consists in designing and implementing a 3D female character editor. It is focused in modeling and animating the female character, hairstyle and clothes. This editor will be developed using the Unity 3D Game Engine. It will consist in an interface that allows changing skin and eye color, style and color of hair and, lastly, the clothes the character is to wear among a catalogue of predefined models. With each change, the character will respond with an animation in order to improve the experience of perceiving the final style of the character

Recreating East Asia creatures that exist in mythology as RPG fantasy characters

Today, MMORPG Games (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) are one of the most popular games in the PC online game genre because users can enjoy the game with other players. They can also choose their own characters and control the character`s avatar. Wide selection of characters available is one of the most important elements in the game. These characters have to be well-designed to draw the user`s attention. These characters, which appear in fantasy MMORPG (World of War craft), and their special features originate from Western myths and ancient stories. Likewise, East Asian has a long history with many myths and ancient stories. Creatures appear in these stories that have interesting features similar to Western creatures. After realizing the unique and interesting features of the creatures in East Asian myths, led to the idea of creating them as MMORPG characters For this project, Dokkebie (Pa-in Folk painting Research Institute) and Haetae, which are creatures that appear in Korea myths, were chosen because of their special and interesting elements that can be implemented as MMORPG characters. Dokkebie has a huge body, big canine teeth and a horn on the head in addition to similar features to humans. Haetae has the same form of a lion, skin of a fish, and two horns like a giraffe. In this project, their special features were recreated as important parts of the characters. The following thesis report is about the technical and artistic process of making these characters. For this project, characters that exist in East Asia myths and tales were created as MMORPG characters